The L.A. Times music blog

Police: Bizzy Bone was robbed

Los Angeles police identified the man who allegedly was robbed by a Los
Angeles anti-gang worker as a member of the rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony.

On Jan. 5, Byron McCane, also known as Bizzy Bone, had returned from a
restaurant to his room at the Universal Hilton, where he was confronted by
several men who beat and choked him before taking his jewelry, police said.

McCane was an original member of the group that began in Cleveland in 1991.
He did not contribute to the group's last album, "Strength and Loyalty," which
was released in 2007.

Police arrested Marlo “Bow Wow” Jones, 30, a contract employee for the
anti-gang organization Unity One, which is hired for the city’s L.A. Bridges II
gang-intervention program, according to the LAPD. LAPD officials said they are
seeking other male and female suspects.

Jones was arrested Friday at 8:50 a.m. in South Los Angeles and is being held
in lieu of $1.1 million bail at the Parker Center Jail downtown. An official
with Unity One told The Times that Jones was terminated from his contract but
that he could possibly be rehired if cleared in connection with the case.

Unity One was founded after the 1992 Los Angeles riots by Darren “Bo” Taylor,
a former gang member who became a peacekeeper respected by street toughs as well
as by law enforcement and community activists struggling to reduce inner-city
violence. Taylor died in August.

--Andrew Blankstein and Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Photo of Bone Thugs from 2000, with Bizzy Bone second from left, by Image Lumuba